New York State Supreme Court acting Justice Juan Merchan, in a double blow to Donald Trump, has denied his motion to dismiss just before setting a trial date in District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s hush money case against the ex-president. Trump’s first criminal trial will begin with jury selection on March 25, Merchan announced Thursday morning at the start of the hearing.
There was commotion in the courtroom, as Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche objected to Justice Merchan’s decisions.
“Blanche is furiously opposing the judge’s adherence to the trial date, saying the court is putting his client in an ‘impossible situation,'” Just Security’s Adam Klasfeld reports.
“You don’t have a trial date in Georgia. You don’t have a trial date in Florida,” Merchan told Blanche, before rebuffing Trump’s attorney.
“After Blanche tries to get a word in, Merchan snaps that he shouldn’t interrupt,” Klasfeld noted.
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Blanche complained to Merchan, “We are in primary season,” and, echoing Trump, called the trial “completely election interference.”
CNN adds Blanche told Merchan that holding the trial is a “great injustice.”
Before Thursday morning’s hearing, Trump gave away his strategy, telling reporters, “We want delays, obviously.” The ex-president also wrong characterized the case, claiming “virtually every legal scholar” has said “there’s no crime.”
Trump “is accused of falsifying business records related to a payment his then-lawyer Michael Cohen gave porn star Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election in exchange for her silence about her alleged sexual tryst with the then-Republican presidential nominee,” CNBC reports.
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